


I Should Have Never Taken You for Granted

by sanxalta99



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Amy Santiago Loves Jake Peralta, F/M, Friendship/Love, Hurt Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta Loves Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta Needs a Hug, Jake Peralta is Bad at Feelings, Mistakes, Pining, Regret, Regretful amy santiago, Undercover Jake Peralta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25199779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanxalta99/pseuds/sanxalta99
Summary: When Jake comes back from his undercover mission with the FBI, Amy and Jake realise they like each other, romantic stylez. But when Amy is afraid of what people will think of her dating another cop, she calls it all off. Now 2 years later she realises she should never take things for granted…
Relationships: Amy Santiago/Other(s), Amy Santiago/Teddy Wells, Jake Peralta & Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Original Female Character(s), Rosa Diaz & Jake Peralta, Terry Jeffords & Amy Santiago
Comments: 22
Kudos: 82





	1. -Prologue-

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys,  
> So this is the first fanfic I've ever written so I hope this was alright!  
> English is definitely not my strong subject at school but I wrote this story straight from my heart.
> 
> I'm aware this chapter kinda sucks but it gets better soon, I promise! ahaha
> 
> I've always wondered how Amy felt when Jake was dating Sophia so I decided to put my spin on things.
> 
> I started writing this as a way to talk about what I'm feeling with something happening in my life right now and since I have no one to talk to that I'm not worried will judge me about it, I decided to write a fanfic based on it. I hope you will enjoy this story!

Amy Santiago is a hardworking and driven Detective; she takes her work very seriously. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up in a family with 7 brothers and always trying to beat the golden child and finally getting your picture up above the mantel. Amy is always trying to impress Holt in everything she does. But one of her biggest things is making sure nothing can distract her or get in the way of her dream to be the youngest N.Y.P.D Captain. 

Her social status and the way that people see her, and their opinions matter a lot to Amy. She’s a perfectionist and always scared she’s going to give off the wrong impression the wrong person. After her recent self-evaluation, it was mentioned that this could be one of Amy’s worst flaws that got in her way of being true to herself and her feelings, but she denied it in every single possible way.

It was about 7 months ago when Jake had told Amy that he liked her, romantic stylez and all. He was just about to go undercover; it was only right that he told her how he felt about her. Still to this day Amy looks back and kicks herself for not saying anything back to Jake, yes she was in a relationship with Teddy at the time but it wasn’t going well, he was the most boring person she knew. For god’s sake, all he would talk about were those stupid Pilsners!

When Jake came back from his undercover mission Amy felt a weight lift off her shoulders that she didn’t even realise she was carrying for those long six months. Amy was still with Teddy when Jake came back, she didn’t even know why! For the past six months she wasn’t able to sleep, all she could think about was Jake. Was he okay? Was he hurt? Has his cover been blown? Has he met someone who wasn’t dodgy? Would he ever want to come back?

Amy had disregarded these absurd thoughts - that would keep her sleepless - as her just being worried about her work partner, her desk mate. But after Jake came back, she realised the real reason why.

She liked him too… Romantic Stylez and all.

Amy broke it off with Teddy soon after she realised her true feelings, she didn’t feel like a good person leading him on like that when she knew that deep down she wished Teddy was Jake. And when Jake got back from his six months in another life, they had gone down to the filing evidence to talk… alone.

***

“Hi,” Amy started. The ‘hi’ didn’t come out as casual as she had hoped, more like a nervous high-pitched squeak.

Jake chuckled under his breath, thoughts running through his head. So much left unsaid that night in the parking lot.

“Hey”

“So… was it successful?... The mission I mean. Was it as cool as you dreamt?!”

"I hope so, I mean it was pretty cool” Jake replied, getting really excited talking about his undercover mission.

The two of them stood there awkwardly, neither knew what to say. Amy looked up from the piece of lint she had been intently staring at, her eyes gazed over his face, she noticed the singular brown curl of hair that fell over his face as he looked down, the movement of his arm to stroke the other to give his hands something to do. She took him all in, she didn’t realise how much she missed him until he was standing right there in front of her.

Amy leaned against the shelving next to them and looked back down at the piece of lint, it was navy-blue in an oblong shape, it must’ve been from an N.Y.P.D shirt she thought to herself.

“Jake…” Amy started in a soft voice, slowly bringing her gaze up to look up at Jake.

Before Amy could continue, Jake’s lips met hers in a soft, cautious kiss. She was startled by the sudden movement that she took a slight step back unknowingly, Jake’s hand brushed past her hip and curled behind her back pulling her closer. Partially coming to terms with the fact that her mouth was interlocked with Jake Peralta’s, the man she had been spending every second of the past six months worrying about. She leaned in to close the small gap between them and kissed him back, feeling his body up against hers was a warm and comfortable feeling, something she could definitely get used to. She reached up to put her arms around his neck and softened into the kiss even more. 

They slowly pulled away and rested their foreheads on one another. Jake was taking deep breaths in and out clearly astonished at his bold but careful ‘I’m back’ gesture. Amy’s heart was pounding loudly in her chest. She secretly hoped he couldn’t hear the loud ‘thwump thwump’ going a million miles per hour and all the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Amy looked up at him, his deep brown eyes were something she could easily drown in but then his soft brown curl fell onto his face. Slowly brushing it away with her hand she giggled, he looked so cute standing there, his arms still around her waist.

They suddenly get pulled back to reality when they hear Boyle come running down the hallway towards the evidence room yelling  
“JAKEY JAKEY!!! WE’RE ALL HEADING TO SHAWS FOR SOME WELCOME BACK DRINKS!! COME QUICK WE DON’T WANT TO BE LATE!!”  
Jake looks back at Amy with an eyebrow raised in question as if to say, ‘I’m sorry but I have to go, but I really wish I didn’t’.  
Amy gave him a small nod telling him to go and that she would be there soon, she just had to finish paperwork from a case she had solved that day.

*** 

Amy had made her way to Shaw’s bar at 11pm, it was getting a bit late for her as she had a shift tomorrow, but she decided she just wouldn’t drink, and plus she had to talk to Jake. 

It had taken her longer than usual to finish up her paperwork. She had a million thoughts rushing through her head.  
I just kissed Jake Peralta,  
THE Jake Peralta,  
Like the Jake that sat opposite to her,  
The one whom she shared a desk with,  
The one who would bring her a coffee every morning,  
The one who she worked with…  
She worked with Jake  
She can’t be in a relationship with someone she worked with…

***

“Hey there” Jake said with a tone Amy was slightly unfamiliar with, she had heard it a couple of times when he talked to Sophia over the phone.  
Jake smoothly slid into the chair on the opposite side of the table to where Amy was sitting, glass of water in hand.  
“Hi” she said back, not taking her eyes off the small shard of glass floating in her water.

“sooo…” Jake starts with a hint of playfulness in his voice. Amy was not looking forward to telling him what she was about to say.

Jake continues, obviously oblivious to Amy’s hand which is now shaking with nerves causing the water to spill over the edge of the cup

“we kis-“

“Jake” Amy abruptly cuts him off,

Jake who is now completely in the moment, looks at her with an eyebrow raised, his eyes are glistening in the low lighting of Shaw’s bar, Amy can see the nervousness through his deep brown eyes

“Look I like you Jake,” She gestures with her hand pointing back and forth between them. 

“But this…” she sighs,

“You’re a great guy, truly, and honestly you’re way too good for me. I mean you just went on an undercover mission for the FBI! You won the bet to see who was the best detective, You notice things in cases no one else can, you work over and above to ensure that families can get the justice they deserve, when you get told no you don’t care because you know that the right thing to do is to do it the way you planned…” 

“Ames, I’m confused”

Amy realises that she had been rambling. She hadn’t even gotten to the point yet! Oh god, this just proves that she should’ve written a speech or at least an outline for this… whatever you want to call it. But she didn’t have time, after all coming to Shaw’s was an impulse decision, exactly why she shouldn’t act on impulses. God she was learning new things today that’s for sure! 

“I can’t do this-”, “I mean I can’t do us”

Jake looks at her in shock which quickly turns into confusion which quickly turns into nervousness.

“Did I do something; did I push a boundary?” Jake looks over her shoulder deep in thought,  
“Shit, I kissed you at work,”  
“We weren’t even together,” he continues at a fast pace  
“There’s probably a rule against that, Ames you know all the rules, did I break one? Is that why you’re upset?” 

“Jake calm down,”

Now it was Jakes turn to spiral, she didn’t expect him to act this way though, she was hoping for a simple ‘We can’t do this, we are work colleagues’ and then she wouldn’t have to deal with it even more than she already was in her head.

“Look I can’t do this, we work together, we work cases together. I don’t want any distractions and plus what would people think of us? Two cops dating, I don’t want people talking negatively behind my back, especially if I’m going to make captain one day. I need everyone’s respect.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Jake says staring intently at his beer in his hands. He’s afraid if he looks up at her the waterworks will come rushing down his face. 

He hears a chair scrape across the ground. He looks up. She’s not sitting there. He looks around and spots her walking out of the bar without looking back. He wasn’t expecting her to though, that wasn’t what Amy Santiago would do. And that’s when the tears streamed down his face.

*** 

Amy closed the door behind her as she left the bar. If she had stayed there any longer, she would’ve done something she would regret, and plus, she couldn’t bare seeing Jake's face after she said what she did. But it was for the best she reminded herself. This way no one would talk about her and jeopardise her dream.


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO YEARS LATER  
  
**

Amy was sitting at her desk on the first floor. She had been recently promoted to Sergeant of the uniformed officers and if she were to be honest, she was glad to have moved desks, it was getting harder each day sitting across from Peralta.

It had been two years since the whole debacle in the evidence room. She and Peralta had stayed close friends since then, it was almost as if it had never happened which she was very grateful for. There had been a few occasions where she suspected that Peralta may have still liked her and to which her heart had skipped a few beats. But it wasn’t long until he got a girlfriend.

Her name was Vanessa Hitchens, she was one of the uniformed officers that she was in command of.

Amy tried the best she could at getting along with Vanessa but one day things changed, and Amy wasn’t quite sure what she had done wrong.

She had made a binder of all the sorts of things Vanessa did in her spare time, what her childhood was like, any hobbies, things she was obsessed with, literally anything to know about Vanessa was in this binder. She had offered to get coffee with Jake and Vanessa, she smiled and waved at her, what more could she possibly do to show that she wasn’t into Jake anymore.

She had later found out (through Rosa) that Jake wasn’t allowed to hang out with Amy anymore. Apparently, Vanessa felt threatened by Amy but didn’t want Jake to know this, so she had carefully manipulated him into pushing Amy out of his life completely.

Rumours had been starting to go around that Amy still liked Jake and was jealous of Vanessa, but she knew that these people had no idea what they were talking about and just wanted to start some drama. Right?

Like Jake had said to her once before, jealousy is an ugly emotion, hence why she didn’t like that particular emotion.

***

It was a chilly Tuesday morning when Amy stepped outside of her apartment on her way to work. She knew that Jake would already be there, he was working on a very important case and she had had to send some uniformed officers to help out at the crime scene.

Knowing Jake, she knew he wouldn’t have had anything nutritious to eat or even a coffee with him so that he could work efficiently. Once Jake was headfirst in a case there was almost no way you could get him to look after himself.

While thinking about this her legs seemed to have subconsciously taken her to the local corner store where she picked up two nutrition bars (the ones with choc chips) and a packet of sour gummy worms. She laughed as the checkout lady scanned the last item through, she knew the way to Jake would always be through gummy worms.

On her way back to the precinct she stopped by the coffee cart on the corner and got two very hot coffees for the cold morning ahead.

When she made her way into the warm buzz that was the precinct she started walking towards the elevator with gummy worms and a hot coffee in hand. It was only when the elevators dinged open that she realised what she was doing! She wasn’t Jakes friend anymore, she couldn’t just waltz upstairs to the 4th floor and expect him to take her care package, and besides she was sure that ‘stupid what’s her name’ of a girlfriend would get him something to eat, a coffee at least.

Knowing how much time Vanessa spends with Jake at work was more than enough to back up her thoughts that she would bring Jake something to eat after all Vanessa was his girlfriend.

Amy put the gummy worms and both of the nutrition bars in the top draw of her desk and drank both of the very warm coffees while thinking to herself _Vanessa isn’t even here yet, she’s probably upstairs making sure Jake has eaten, after all she is his girlfriend._

***

The morning briefing for the uniformed officers had started 10 minutes before Vanessa finally showed up. She was in her uniform with her hair down framing her face. Amy looked at her confused, she had only seen her with her hair up in a high bun or half up - half down. Something else was off with her hair… oh god she dyed it. ‘ _But why?_ ’ Amy thought to herself, Vanessa had beautiful dirty blond hair and then she goes and dyes it black?!

“Each to their own,” Amy said under her breath.

“What was that Sergeant?” One of the uniform officers asked. He was an ‘Amy’ as her co-workers on the fourth floor had told her. ‘I feel bad for his desk buddy’ Jake had said, the joke hadn’t quite reached his eyes.

“Oh nothing, please, take a seat Miss Hitchens-”

“Sorry I’m late,” Vanessa started, not talking to any one in particular.

She continued “My boyfriend, you all know him-“

The whole room cut her off

“Detective Jake Peralta”

“Yes we know him”

“you can stop showing off your ‘amazing’ detective of a boyfriend Hitchens” mini Amy said over the top of everyone’s murmurs of how annoying this uniformed officer and her boyfriend is. Amy couldn’t help but chuckle at this remark. Maybe she did like this mini her after all.

“Look I’m sorry to cut in Miss Hitchens but we were right in the middle of a very important briefing. So, if you could please go take a seat.”

Amy had completely forgotten about Terry who had been standing behind her all this time. She was thankful that he noticed her shift a few times when the officers had mentioned Jake being Vanessa’s boyfriend, so he decided to cut her pathetic speech short so that Amy could finish her briefing.

“Thank you, Lieutenant…” Amy smiled back at Terry.

“So, as most of you are aware, some of the detectives on the fourth floor are currently working on an open case, the primary on this case is Detective Peralta and has requested for new uniformed officers to help at the crime scene. Apparently, those who were there yesterday did not do very well and since this is a very high-profile case there will be no shortcuts to be taken. Am I understood?”

“Yes Sergeant Santiago” The room chorused all in unison.

“Now I will be working with Lieutenant Jeffords to assign three of you to help with this case. In the meantime, you are all dismissed.”

All the uniformed officers started filing out of the room when Terry called out

“Miss Hitchens”

Vanessa turned around with a sour look on her face.

“Try not to be late again, no, on second thought, don’t be late again and that’s an order.” Terry said with force.

“But you’re not my commanding officer,” She replied back with disgust in her voice.

“You’re not a cleaver cookie, are you?” Terry replied back sharply.

And with that Vanessa quickened up her pace and walked out of the room.

***

Throughout the day Amy had been checking in for any progress on Jakes case. He was working on a string of drug overdoses that seemed to have no connection, yet something seemed off and creepily familiar between all five reports. He was concerned that the next person to be targeted would be the lesbian couple across the road from his mums house. This didn’t seem like such a high-profile case to any eyes who had not worked alongside Detective Peralta, but Amy had. She instantly recognised the small peanut emoji with a crown next to each of the reports.

_Shit_

Amy said under her breath and grabbed her coat and ran to the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened to the 4th floor Amy ran into the bullpen to Jakes desk. He was nowhere to be seen.

“Lieut!!!” She called out,

“Terry!!!” she yelled even louder

“Santiago, what’s up?” Terry asked as he strolled out of the break room with yogurt in hand.

“Where is Jake? I mean Detective Peralta?”

“He just left to go back to the crime scene, what’s wrong? Is there something with the uniformed officers?” Terry was confused but also very concerned.

“No, no. I- uh-. I know something that could be major to his case. I’ll just come back later.”

“Nonsense Santiago, I’ll give Jake a call and he’ll be back in no time-”

“No really, it’s okay. He’s probably looked over it already. I’ll just catch him when he gets back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,”

Amy didn’t sound very convincing, but Terry let it slide. He knew that Amy had information that could help this case, so if she didn’t talk to Jake by the end of the day he would.

Amy made her way back to the elevator, but instead of pressing number 1, she pressed 3.

***

Amy had spent the rest of her day at her desk signing off on paper-work and other minor desk jobs. It wasn’t until her break time when she went to the breakroom and scrolled through social media. She was sitting back on the couch, relaxed as she saw a few posts of Cheddar in his snow boots and a couple of selfies of Gina. It wasn’t until she saw a post from @V_Hitchens99 that she sunk even further into the couch, hoping that it would just swallow her up.

It was a photo of Vanessa and Jake at his desk, she was sitting on his lap with her arm slung around his shoulder like a kid at Christmas on Santa Clauses lap. Jake however didn’t seem overjoyed that his girlfriend had just come to his desk and taken a selfie of the two of them when he should be hard at work trying to catch this perp. He looked tired; he was squinting as if he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

Amy turned her phone off and laid on the couch for a moment longer letting herself get lost in her thoughts.

She was brought back to reality when she was called out into the bullpen and told that Terry needed to talk to her.

When Amy arrived on the fourth floor Terry called her over to his desk.

“Have you spoken to him yet?” Terry asked while looked over at Jake who was at his desk clicking mindlessly on a digital file.

“no, not yet, I will soon.”

Terry looked at her with an eyebrow raised

“I just need to get a few things together first…” she replied while gazing towards Jake

“I don’t think he’s eaten today” Terry randomly said, almost as if he could read her thoughts

“Wasn’t Vanessa up here like 30 minutes ago… That was around lunch time.”

“yes, she was, but do you really think she would think about his needs, Santiago”

“Well she is his girlfriend.”

“that’s correct, she’s his girlfriend, that’s all she wants, the label” Terry said distracted as he leaned back into his chair.

Amy let out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding onto. She had been thinking that exact same thing for the past week but was scared someone would take it the wrong way and think that she was only saying that because she still likes Jake, which wasn’t true. Or was it?

She looked over to Jakes desk, he was sitting deeply in his chair, looking around aimlessly.

“I’ve need to go, sorry Lieut-” Amy suddenly started walking towards the elevator at a very fast pace, almost running,

“wait- SANTIAGO I need you to sign thi-“

Terry didn’t finish his sentence. Amy was already in the elevator; she couldn’t hear him anymore.

***

20 minutes later Amy found herself in the elevator on her way to the fourth floor.

The elevator dinged and she walked out into the detectives’ bullpen, her second home, well her old second home.

She made her way over to Jakes desk; she could smell his aroma. She stood there, just for a moment, remembering the times where she would sit on the other side of this desk and she would look up and notice Jake smiling at her. She missed his smile, the warmth of his eyes.

Amy gets snapped back into reality when she hears the ping of the elevator arriving on the fourth floor, possibly with Jake standing on the other side.

She quickly plants her gift on his desk and rushes off towards the back stairs in the precinct hoping that Jake hadn’t seen her.

***

Jake begrudgingly walks out of the elevator after following yet another dead end to this case.

He’d seen something like this, he’s sure of it. Something doesn’t add up and he knows it, but he doesn’t quite know what is wrong. He feels as though he’s missing background information, almost as if he knows the perp who had done this. He recognised the M.O straight away but couldn’t put his finger on it. He had looked over all of his past cases and nothing brought itself to light. He was on the verge of giving up.

He walked over to his desk and slumped down into his desk chair, head in hands. He put his elbows onto his desk when he hit something.

His head shot up

There before this poor detective who had been struggling for answers, who hadn’t eaten in days were a bag of sour gummy worms!

“GUMMY WORMS!!” Jake yelled out; his foul mood of hopelessness had shot right out through the window.

Rosa glared at him from the corner of his eye.

“right, sorry Rosa.”

Jake looked back down at his desk, he was like a child in a candy store, he was in a candy store!

Next to the gummy worms were two nutrition bars, Jake frowned down at them until he realised…

“oooo choc-chips!”

Rosa looked at him again, hand reaching in the inside of her jacket.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

Jake looked back down at the pile of goodies, he saw $5 with a note attached,

_FOR A COFFEE_

He recognised the handwriting but couldn’t pinpoint it.

“God I’m off my game today,” he mumbled, being sure to say this quietly, god knows what Rosa has in her pockets.

He looked back down at the last item on his desk. A case file. An old one. Two years ago, to be exact.

He opened up the file and started looking through all the details. It was the missing puzzle piece; how could he have not seen it!  
  


He looked for the names of the two detectives who had worked on this case. He was going to give them hell for not saying something, he had asked specifically for any case files to do with drug busts that happen at 12am.

He yelled out to the bullpen while looking for the detectives’ names.

“I found it, I found it!! I’ve solved the cas-”

Rosa was about to storm over to Jakes desk and make him pay for him being so loud when he fell back down into his chair. He fell silent. The bullpen followed in suit; everyone was silent.

Terry walked out of the elevator oblivious to the tension in the room.

“Jake I know you haven’t had any caffeine today so I got you a coff-”

Rosa ran over to the Lieutenant telling him to shut up and read the room.

Jake stared at the paper in his hands, he had found the names of the two detectives who had conducted a stakeout on the 14th of January 2014. Scribbled in the same handwriting as the note:

_Amy Santiago_

_Jake Peralta_

That night was engraved in his brain. Amy had flirted with him for 20 seconds and he fell in love with her, he liked her, more than just colleges.

He had won their bet to see who the best detective was and therefore had to take her out on the worst date imaginable, he even got a youth choir to serenate her!

Their date had been cut short – much to his dislike - and they had to go stake out a possible drug bust at 12 am. Amy had found his stakeout nuts and they threw them into each other’s mouths, her smile was so cute, she couldn’t stop laughing, Jake smiled at this memory.

A call had interrupted their nut throwing session, it was from Captain Holt. He told Jake that a relief team was available if they needed.

The fact that Jake had secretly turned down the relief team so that he could spend more time with Amy was something he had never told anyone, he hoped that Amy didn’t somehow figure it out because he figured it could be embarrassing due to how they worked out.

However, Jake knew that Amy probably knew, she was the best detective after all. 

Jake sat there for a while as the memories from that night washed over him. He knew he missed Amy, but he hadn’t realised how much.

He was abruptly brought back to reality when Vanessa walked into the bullpen

“Where’s my best detective?!” She called out to the almost empty room. Most of the officers had gone home leaving a few to finish off paperwork and Jake reminiscing about his days on duty with (then) Detective Santiago.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a week since Jake had solved his case with Amy’s helpful hint. The precinct had been buzzing with joy ever since. This was a very high-profile case, and everyone was very glad to have heard those three words _I found it_.

Terry had come up to her later that day telling her to not bother talking to Peralta about the case as he had already solved it. Little did he know that she was the reason behind the solve.

The squad had gone to Shaws bar in celebration and Jake asked Rosa if Amy would be tagging along, secretly hoping that she would. “Nah man,” Rosa had told him. “Why’d you think that, she hasn’t come since that girlfriend of yours told her to back off…” almost as if it was on cue Vanessa walked into the bar.

***

Vanessa was yet again late to the morning briefing, that was the third time this week. Amy rolled her eyes as Miss Hitchens strutted her way to the back-left corner of the room where there was a spare seat

Amy continued with her briefing.

“and just before we finish up, I want to say thank you to those who helped on the scene of Detective Peralta-”

“My genius boyfriend” Vanessa cut in.

“Oh my god will you just shut up about your boyfriend,” Mini Amy had turned around in his seat and was facing Vanessa

“We all know you’re dating Detective Peralta but that doesn’t mean you have to remind everyone that you’re dating him every time his name comes up!”

The room murmured in agreement

Amy stood behind the podium star struck, this mini Amy really was like her. He just had the confidence to say what he was thinking, which happened to be what she was too.

“I know he’s some sort of genius detective, but Sergeant Santiago was his partner,” he looked back up at his sergeant, “in the field. She solved cases along side him and was the Primary on most. So why aren’t we talking about how much of an amazing detective she was and not just Peralta. For goodness sakes, she’s a Sergeant now, he’s still a detective. So, you can just shut up and stop thinking that you’re so cool for dating a detective.”

“I agree with Adams,”

“Same here.”

“Yeah, where’s Sergeants recognition?”

“Yeah”

‘Period!”

The whole room irrupted with agreements and conversations.

Vanessa was still up the back of the room and for one moment Amy swears she saw a tear forming in her eye.

Amy smiles back down at the uniformed officer who had just defended her. She learnt a new thing today. Sometimes having an ‘Amy’ isn’t so bad after all and that this cop had a name, Adams. How could she have not known that?!

“You’re all dismissed”

Amy couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. Maybe she did have people who had her back after all.

***

“What the hell Santiago?!”

Amy looked up from the paperwork she was doing while eating left over Polish food she found in the fridge with her name on it.

All she saw was a very angry Terry, and a very angry Terry was a very scary Terry.

“I’m sorry?”, Amy managed to squeak out

“I have a very angry Miss Hitchens upstairs distracting my best detective from finishing off his paperwork. You know how hard it is to get Jake to do his paperwork!”

“Yes, I am familiar with the lack of motivation Detective Peralta has towards his paperwork.” she said quietly. Amy looked down at her paperwork in front of her. Memories of Jake teasing her love for this part of the job came flooding towards her. Tears started forming in her eyes.

Ever since this morning, memories from her days out in the field with Jake kept washing over her. She had resorted to paperwork to distract her but this conversation with Terry was just too much for today.

Amy pushed her chair back and ran towards the toilets leaving behind a very confused and still mad Terry.

***

Amy takes a good 5 minutes to clean herself up before she returns to a possibly even more angry Terry.

“I’m so sorry Santiago, I wasn’t thinking,” Terry starts apologising immediately

_This is definitely not what I was expecting Amy_ said to herself.

“No, it’s fine Lieut. No one would’ve known. I’ve just been on edge emotionally since this morning.”

“What happened? Oh, has this got anything to do with Miss Hitchens because if it does I’m sure Rosa would be happy to-”

“No no, it’s not what you think,” Amy chuckled to herself. “You may want to take a seat”

The lieutenant takes a seat and starts listening to Amy tell him about the morning briefing.

“WOW, Santiago! Looks like you’ve got yourself a nice group of fans down here” Terry said, still laughing.

“Yeah, I definitely wasn’t expecting that from my ‘Amy’ I mean Adams.”

“I’m so sorry about storming down here earlier, I had just gotten Jake to do his paperwork and then she showed up.”

“Sour face and all?”

“Sour face and all!” Terry replied with a chuckle.

_***_

Amy had started her walk home from the precinct. It was a long walk, but she needed to clear her head. Thoughts of Jake wouldn’t leave her mind the whole day, not that she was complaining though. But he had a girlfriend, he was in a loving relationship. That’s what she kept telling herself.

Just as she was getting into the rhythm of her strides it starts raining. _How fun_ , she thought to herself. She had no umbrella or raincoat, usually she was more prepared for situations like this. Amy hated the rain and she still had a very long way to walk before she would reach her apartment. _How fitting, this day really couldn’t get any worse could it?_

***

Jake grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and made his way to the elevator. _Today’s been a long goddam day_ he thought to himself. He had just wrapped up a case that had taken him forever to solve; he should be happy. But he wasn’t. Expressing emotions in the best way wasn’t Jakes strong suit, he would just supress it until it all became too much. And that’s exactly what he had done. Jake could write a whole list of thoughts swimming inside his head that caused him to break down into tears when he got to the comfort of his car. He reached into the glovebox and pulled out a notepad and pen - curtesy of Amy Santiago and her badgering about why it’s so important to have a full-sized notepad in your car -

Jake started writing:

_ Dear whoever is reading this, here’s the wacky stuff swimming in my head _

__

He smiled to himself, what a very creative title.

  * _i ran out of nuts in my stake out bag and found out the hard way :(_
  * _i didn’t have a coffee this morning_
  * _charles wouldn’t stop talking about nikolaj_
  * _this case took wayyyyy too long to solve_
  * _vanessa didn’t bother to properly celebrate with me, she had her phone out the whole time._
  * _i can’t believe i didn’t think about that case file_
  * _vanessa came up to me upset today, i wanted to do work but she just wanted me to listen to her rant about her collueges. She mentioned santiagos name_
  * _the new person at santiagos old desk arrived today_
  * _how could I have forgotten about that night_
  * _vanessa didn’t even think to get me a coffee, but someone who i haven’t talked to in 2 years did._



Jake felt like he could write down everything that was wrong forever when he saw a familiar face walk through the door to the parking lot. Quickly Jake ripped the page off the notepad and scrunched it up and threw in the backseat.

“Hey babe!”

Vanessa had opened the door and sat delicately in the passenger seat of Jakes car, for a split second he thought it was Amy.

 _God I need sleep_ , Jake thought to himself, _Her new hair was making things very confusing though._ Jake had been wondering why she had dyed her hair black. She had beautiful dirty blond hair and when Jake had asked her about it, she just replied with ‘I felt like it’.

“Hey V, I thought you said you didn’t need a lift tonight?”

Vanessa landed a quick peck on his lips

“What, can I not get my boyfriend to drive me home?” she looked up at him with big puppy like eyes.

“No, of course I can. I was just thinking of going to Boyle’s place, ya know, see Nikolaj. God he loves that kid.” Jake was trying to come up with an excuse to get her out of the car. _I am wayyy too sleep deprived to deal with her negativity right now._

“well I had a different idea on how we can spend this evening-” her palm lingering over his heart and slowly walking her fingers down his chest, eyes locked into his lips like a key stuck in a door refusing to come out.

“Is this our way of celebrating me closing that exhausting case?” Jake asked softly, she hadn’t congratulated him other than on social media so if this was the case he was definitely interested. He slowly started to lean down towards his girlfriend

“what, no?!” she said delicately, “I had a shit day today, remember the other cops and stupid Santiago-”

“mmn Santiago,” he repeated as he closed his eyes and lent down to close the gap between them. The kiss started out soft but turned a sharp turn as he deepened the kiss, “are you wearing a new lipstick?” Jake managed to get out between kisses, Vanessa leaned back parting from Jakes lips shocked that he had noticed.

“Yeah, I heard sarge say her 13-year-old niece suggested it, so I checked it out to make fun of it but it’s cute, you like it?” Eyes still locked on his which were staring at her lips. She leant back in picking off where they had left off, her arms wrapped around the back of his neck, his hands gripped firmly on her hips pulling her closer.

“You look great,” he replied out of breath.

Her hands moved from the back of his neck down to his lower back and then around his torso onto his chest, she could feel his heart beating in a slightly heightened pace. She started unbuttoning his shirt when he pulled away.

“We should get back to mine,” he explained

“I’m down,” she replied with a peck on his lips.

***

It hadn’t even been 1 minute when Vanessa had spotted a cute café that _I saw on Instagram_ she explained, she had asked if he could drop her off here.

“But it’s raining Vanessa,”

“I’ll be ok! I’m sure they’ll have heaters inside.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then…” Jake tried to hide his disappointment, he was looking forward to his little celebration, but it was fine, nothing new.

Jake kept driving along aimlessly once he dropped Vanessa off, it had only just occurred to him that Vanessa wasn’t trying to celebrate with him, it was for her benefit not his.

_Blank Space_ by Taylor Swift was blasting through the car speakers and rain was pouring down on the metal machine around him, _fun, how fitting_ he thought.

Jake was signing along with no care in the world and completely out of tune:

_Oh my God, look at that face,_

_You look like my next mistake,_

_Love’s a game, want to play?_

He was starting to get right into the song, he’d created such a good vibe in his car, he didn’t want it to ever end.

Until he noticed a familiar figure in the distance getting drenched by the rain.

He continued singing but slightly preoccupied:

_So it’s gonna be forever,_

_Or is it gonna go down in flames,_

_You can tell me when it’s over,_

_If the high was worth the pain._

He got up to a stop sign and let the song continue on, he couldn’t quite figure out who that was standing in the rain, obviously not enjoying what mother nature has to offer right this second.

It wasn’t until a few lines later when he realised who it was

_I’ve got a blank space baby,_

_And I’ll write your name-_

“AMY!! Oh my god it’s Amy”

***

Amy had found a small roof that was extending outside a local coffee shop on the sidewalk. The rain hadn’t slowed down at all, she couldn’t walk to her apartment in this weather. She opened up her phone and started to go through her contacts to see who she could call and hopefully drive her home.

Kylie? No, she is working really late tonight,

Terry? No, he has his kids he needs to get back to,

Rosa? No way, she has a motorbike and they’ll get drenched in the rain,

Charles? Nope, he said he had to get to some sort of food gala,

Gina? No way, she’d never hear the end of it and plus she would never come out in the rain for Amy. There was one person left in her contact list, her finger was hovering above the name, really not wanting to call him when she hears someone call out her name.

“Santiago!! Get in!!”

Amy does what the voice tells her to do. Rain drops and the bustling city around her was enough for her to not realise whose car she was getting into. She couldn’t care less though, she just needed to get out of the wet and cold.

Amy runs around to the passenger side of the car and gets in with no hesitation. Soft music was playing through the speakers, Taylor Swift? There was only one person she knew who plays her songs when no one else is around.

She goes stiff, just sits there, the car is silent.

“You going to put your seatbelt on or are you just gonna die in the hands of me crashing this car?”

“Peralta?”

“Yeah that’s me, god I know we haven’t spoken in a while Ames,” Amy winces at his use of the name he used back at that night at the bar, the night she unknowingly regrets. “but I thought you’d at least remember my voice”

_I remember more than just your voice,_ she thinks to herself. Her mind flashes back to the kiss in the evidence room. The fine lines on his forehead that appeared when he looked down at her, the warmth his hand held when it traced her back all the way to her hip.

“Yeah-, I-, I’m sorry” she blurts out looking at her shoes.

“all good” Jake replied, and he pulled the car off the curb back into the traffic.

The drive was silent apart from Taylor singing her heart out through Jakes speakers. Jake was peacefully humming along and tapping his fingers on the wheel when Amy spoke up.

“Why’d you pick me up?” she asked

“Okay one, you don’t seem real pleased that I did, I mean I can drop you off and you can walk the rest of the way if you want,”

“no no, I appreciate it, a lot. We just haven’t spoken in two years, wait do you remember where my apartment is?”

“yeah, two more blocks, take a right and then the first exit at the roundabout.” Jake explains confidently.

“you do remember!” Amy says under her breath

“of course I do” he laughs. “Any way, I saw you getting drenched in the rain and then I remembered how much you hate the rain. I guess I acted off instinct.”

“fair enough” Amy didn’t really know how to reply to that, it warmed her heart to know that he still had a part of him that cared about her.

They were getting closer to her apartment, just 3 more blocks when Jake suddenly spoke up.

“why’d you leave the casefile on my desk?”

“huh?!” Amy looked up at Jake who was still intently staring at the road in front of them.

“the case file, 14th of January 2014, the casefile that got left on my desk that pretty much solved the case for me.” Jake explained not looking away from the road.

“oh that,” Amy says quietly, not sure if Jake was mad or grateful for her little gift she left on his desk.

“yeah, why’d you do it?” he persisted

“I, uh, I’m-”

“Santiago?” Jake asked concerned

“are you mad at me?” she asked in a small voice, scared for the answer.

“What?! No way! I’m actually really grateful, I was just curious as to why you did it, I’ve been a dick recently, a really shit friend, if that. I didn’t deserve your help.”

“True but I did it because you were really stuck on this case and then the other day I was at my desk and it clicked. I figured you didn’t want to talk to me, so I just left it on your desk-”

She looked at Jake

“wait, how did you know it was me?”

“Santiago I could pick out your handwriting from a million different ones and plus who else would leave it on my desk without speaking to me?”

“A uniformed officer?”

“Ames, we worked this case together. I don’t know, it kinda made sense that you left it there.” Amy nodded her head at this, still flinching when he called her ‘Ames’. “Also, I’m a detective.” He put his hand over the top of his heart “Are you underestimating my detective abilities Santiago?!”

Amy chuckled, for the first time in two years here they were joking around and laughing together like they used to. She didn’t want this moment to end.

“well here we are.” Jake announced

“thank you, Jake, so much.”

“any time” he smiled at her

She took her seatbelt off and got out of the car and headed towards her apartment building with a warm and fuzzy feeling in her stomach.

Jake watched her walk up the steps towards the apartment building. Her natural silky black hair which was absolutely drenched from the rain was pulled back in a low bun, he remembers the feeling of her hair in between his fingers, she smelt like vanilla and honey, the way they naturally fit together like a perfect puzzle when they kissed. Oh, how he would do anything to be in that moment again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses more on Amy and some of her thoughts, in the next chapter we'll see more of Jake's thoughts and feelings.

Amy woke up at 5 am like normal and walked out of her bedroom to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. Yesterday had been a whirlwind of a ride that’s for sure. Luckily, she had set the wrong alarm and woken up a lot earlier than needed, so she took this time to sit down and try to process everything going on inside her head.

Once she poured the coffee into an old NYPD mug, she made her way to the couch and turned on the TV to watch the news. While the TV played in the background, Amy picked up her phone and went to her contacts and clicked the name _Detective Peralta_. His name hadn’t been this in her contacts forever, in fact, it’s been quite a few different things. She leaned back into the couch and starts remembering all the names he’s been under in her contacts.

When she first met him, it was ‘Detective Peralta’. She had gotten his number due to being partners at work and therefore decided to keep it professional. Soon it changed to ‘Peralta’, she seemed to call him just by his last name so it only made sense that she would change his contact name to ‘Peralta’. A couple of months later it changed to ‘Jake’, plain, simple, old and boring Jake. When Jake had told Amy that his Nana used to call him ‘Pineapples’ she instantly changed the name. She couldn’t stop laughing and insisted on calling him that contrary to him begging her not to. Every time her phone would light up and she would see the words ‘Pineapples’ it instantly brought a smile to her face no matter what mood she was in. After the night in the evidence locker, she changed it back to ‘Peralta’. A smile wouldn’t form itself across her lips when she saw that name anymore, instead, tears would form in her eyes. Everything changed when Jake started dating Vanessa. She had recently changed it to ‘Jake’ since they were still really close friends but when his new girlfriend obsessed with the labels demanded that she and Jake have nothing to do with each other she changed it to ‘Detective Peralta’ and that’s what it stayed as for two years _and more in the future_ she thought to herself.

Amy scrolled all the way up to the messages in late 2013 and started reading them:

**Pineapples**

November 25th

5:00 am

for some reason i’m awake right now and i know for a fact that your early ass is up so call me back now!!!!!!!!!!

**Ames**

November 25th

5:03 am

Oh my God!! Pineapples is awake at 5 am! I’ll call you in a minute, I just got out of the shower.

**Pineapples**

November 25th

5:08 am

santiagoooooo!!!! pick up the phoneeeeee

**Ames**

November 25th

5:08 am

I just put my clothes on, I’ll call you once I get myself sorted.

**Pineapples**

November 25th

5:09 am

i’ll be quiet and you can keep doing whatevz you do at this early hour, i just need company

**Ames**

November 25th

5:09 am

Jake it’s a phone call, I’d hardly call it company.

**Pineapples**

November 25th

5:09 am

ames please!

**Ames**

November 25th

5:09 am

Okay, I’m calling now.

**Ames**

November 25th

5:10 am

*Call started*

6:00 am

*Call ended*

Amy chuckled to herself, she remembers that call like it was yesterday. She had called Jake to hear him half asleep and very grumpy that he was awake at 5 am, he was cute when he was grumpy, this is what made this call so much better. They had spent the whole 50-minute call with Jake on speaker while Amy walked around the apartment getting ready for the day, and a very unmotivated Jake still in bed. The call in some ways was very unnecessary but they both enjoyed it very much. When Jake had arrived at work that morning, he placed a coffee and two sour gummy worms from the packet he was holding, down in front of Amy. “What’s this for?” she had asked him chuckling. Jake never gave away his gummy worms, so this was very weird! “I called you at 5am Ames!! And wouldn’t settle for no, so this is my thank you gift.” He explained. “Jake, seriously its fine! Turns out I liked the company.” She remembers the way he smiled at her when she said that.

Amy gets pulled back into present day

“God, I really took him for granted, didn’t I?” she thought aloud.

***

When Amy arrives at the precinct that morning, she is greeted with all the normal _hello_ ’s, _good morning_ , _morning Sarge_ but the biggest greeting was a coffee still boiling hot sitting on her desk. As she moved closer, she could see a note next to it which read:

_i’m so sorry, i forgot to thank you for the coffee and snacks as well as the case file. This is my thank you gift! Have a great day!_

Amy smiled down at the note and laughed, god she missed Peralta more than she thought.

***

Later that day she checked her phone to see what time it was. 1:00 was displayed across the screen, _perfect_ , Amy thought to herself. She walked over to the elevator as naturally as possible. She was nervous. She wanted to thank Peralta in person for the coffee, things had seemed to be normal yesterday when he saved her from the rain and then the coffee on her desk, things were looking up for the two of them.

When the elevator doors opened, she saw something she definitely wasn’t expecting. Vanessa was sitting in the chair at the end of Jake’s desk with her hands in his and she laughed at a joke he had said. The new detective sitting opposite them at Amy’s old desk didn’t seem very happy with the happy couple sitting in front of her. She wanted to tell this poor new detective to stay strong, but it would just seem weird.

When the elevator door dinged it caught the attention of Vanessa, and Amy instantly copped a sly snarl from her. With her original plan completely out the window she walked directly towards Terrys desk. Unfortunately, Terry wasn’t there so she needed a plan B. She looked around his desk to try and spot a notepad or sticky note that she could write on and pretend to need to leave the Lieutenant an important note, but she was having no luck. She made a mental note to give Terry hell for not having any sticky notes on his desk.

She can feel the pair of eyes on her back, she was running out of options. At one-point Amy did consider running to the stairs and making a break for it, but that would just draw too much attention. She was on the verge of tears when she feels a quick tap on her shoulder.

“Sargent Santiago?”

Amy spun around so fast, almost knocking herself off her feet.

“Yep that’s me, that’s me. I’m Sargent Santiago, yup” she said awkwardly and in a rush.

“I’m the new detective, Detective Trink. I couldn’t help but notice you needed something to write on, will this do?”

Detective Trink handed her a couple of sticky notes. Amy smiled at the new detective.

“oh yes!! Thank you so much!!” she exclaimed as the took the sticky notes out of Trink’s hands.

“No problem, I’ll see you around.”

“Will do!”

Amy wrote on the small note square, _Dropped by to talk to you about a case but you weren’t here, call me ASAP -Santiago._

And with that she made her escape to the elevator.

When she got down to the first floor and to her desk, she stared at her paperwork. Thoughts rushing through her head, but one kept coming back, louder and louder.

_I wish that was me sitting there._

***

That night Amy was sitting on her couch with a container of ice cream in her lap. The universe really didn’t want her to go one day without having to face some sort of problem with Vanessa and Jake.

She grabbed her phone and opened up Instagram, her feed instantly opened up to a photo of Vanessa and Jake at a restaurant. She was holding her phone to take a selfie and Jake was sitting on the other side of the table smiling at the camera, but Amy noticed that his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes like it did the other day when he drove her home. The photo was captioned with ‘Bae took me out to dinner *heart eye emoji* so proud of my little detective #boyfriendgoals #Boyfriend #detectiveboyfriend. The comments were worse, but Amy had trained herself not to look at them. Seeing all these photos of Jake and Vanessa quite frankly made her feel jealous.

 _That would’ve been me in that stupid photo,_ she thought to herself.

***

One afternoon Amy was on the fourth floor in Holts office getting him to sign some paperwork before she can send it off to be filed. There were a lot of papers to go through so Amy sat down on the couch in Holts office. She looked out the window into the bullpen and watched her former fellow detectives go about their work when she saw Jake laying his head in his arms on his desk. He didn’t look alright but then she saw Vanessa sitting on the end of the table talking to cops walking past, paying no attention to her boyfriend who was clearly not okay.

Once Holt finished signing the paperwork she walked up to Peralta’s desk and asked if he was okay. He told her that he was fine and tried to play it off, but Amy wasn’t buying it, she knew something was up. She went to ask him again when she realised that it wasn’t her place, she didn’t have to look after him anymore. They weren’t friends, he had made that very clear when Vanessa came along, so she turned away from his desk and went to the stairs and thought to herself, _What a shit girlfriend, I wouldn’t leave him like that, I’d make sure he’s okay and would do everything in my power to help him. But I’m not and he made it clear he didn’t need my help when she came along._

***

A week later Amy found herself sitting in her bed staring at the ceiling. Thoughts came rushing through her head like a huge wave, it was starting to get all too much, she wanted to cry, she wanted to talk to someone but had no one, no one who she felt comfortable enough to talk to about this and who she trusted wouldn’t judge her.

She broke down into tears.

_I blew it,_ she thought to herself.

_I put the fear of hurting my social status in front of doing what I wanted to do,_

_I had my chance and I blew it,_

_It’s not Vanessa’s fault this is happening to me,_

_It’s mine._

_I was the one who put an end to something great,_

_I’m the one who took Jake for granted,_

_I had had him, the man of my dreams,_

_But I took it for granted…_

She walked over to her sock drawer and pulled out an old photo of her and Jake after successfully stopping to Vulture from taking his case. Tears were now streaming down her face.

_I should have never taken you for granted._


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this upload was a bit later than I hoped. I've had a crazy week and didn't quite know how I wanted to write/explain the events I wanted to happen in this chapter if that makes any sense haha. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this little snippet of Jakes POV of this story.
> 
> The next chapter will be up in a few days time. I know what I want to happen in it, I just don't know the details and when I'll have time!
> 
> I hope you're enjoying this story!!

Amy walked into the precinct which welcomed her with a lovely burst of warmth. It was January, the peak of Winter in Brooklyn, it was a freezing cold icicle outside.

She put her coat down on the back of her chair and started to log into her computer when she noticed someone standing in front of her desk. She wasn’t in the best mood; she hadn’t been for a few weeks now. Ever since she broke down in the comfort of her room she couldn’t stop thinking about Jake and how she blew it, something perfect, she hated herself for it. She would feel a small tear run down her cheek at the most random times throughout the day, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jake, her brain wouldn’t stop.

“What do you want?” Amy asked the figure standing in front of her desk without looking up

“Are there any open cases I can assist with on the fourth floor?” Said the figure. Amy recognised the voice instantly.

Amy kept her eyes trained on the computer screen.

“Miss Hitchens, I will give out the assignments during the morning briefing.”

“I know, I just thought I’d ask if I could work with Detective Peralt-”

“Morning briefing,” Amy cut her off, starting to get irritated. “I’ll assign jobs accordingly at the morning briefing.” She repeated.

Amy stood up and started walking away

“Don’t be late,” she added.

Vanessa stayed in front of Amy’s desk and fiddled with the bar that had ‘Sargent Santiago’ written in gold on it.

“Sargent,” Vanessa called out

“What is it?” Amy turned around to face Jakes girlfriend.

“Sour gummy worms?! Really?”

Amy looked at her confused

“He’s not a kid, you can’t bribe him with gummy worms.” Vanessa said matter of factly.

Amy chuckled and turned towards the briefing room.

 _Does she even know who she’s dating?!_ Amy thought to herself.

***

The morning briefing came around and much to Vanessa’s dislike Amy didn’t assign her case with Jake.

This really pinged Vanessa off and the young cop sulked around the precinct for the rest of the day.

***

Upstairs on the fourth floor Jake was staring intently at his computer, tears were swelling in his eyes and he was trying as hard as he could to hold it all back. His dad had decided to surprise him and show up at his apartment very drunk and in need of a place to crash. Jake would’ve sent him away, but he saw how drunk his father was and he couldn’t let him roam the streets of Brooklyn in that state. When Jake had woken up his father was gone, and so was the money that Jake had saved up and kept in a jar for emergencies. His father wasn’t someone he liked very much and quite frankly it was very out of character for him to let Rodger into his living space like that but in that moment he wanted to give his dad a second chance but that blew up in his face like the smoke bomb he and Santiago set off in the Vultures face. He hadn’t told anyone about his father’s surprise visit yet, but he felt like he really needed to.

That’s when Vanessa walked out into the detective’s bullpen walking very intently towards Captain Holts office. Jake watched as his girlfriend walked straight past him on a mission to the Captains office.

Vanessa walked into the office and closed the door behind her without knocking and then proceeded to shut the blinds. Something was going on.

***

Only five minutes later, Vanessa walks out of Captain Holts office in a huff, things obviously didn’t go the way she planned.

“V, what’s going on?” Jake asked, looking into her eyes.

“N- no, nothing” she stammered.

Terry had looked down at his computer screen to see an email from Holt.

_Dear Lieutenant Jeffords,_

_I would like to formally request to see you in my office immediately._

_Sincerely,_

_Captain Raymond Holt._

Terry looked towards the captain’s office and swears he saw Holt roll his eyes and the now emotional puddle on the floor that is Miss Hitchens.

Terry made his was to Holts office and shut the door behind him. This action didn’t go unnoticed by Jake and made him more concerned about the situation unfolding in front of him.

“V, talk to me” he said sternly to his girlfriend, he wasn’t in a good mood to begin with and add not knowing what the hell was going on, Jake was about to explode.

“Not here,” she replied and led him to the evidence room.

***

“So, you going to tell me what happened back there?” Jake asked, hungry for answers.

“Santiago,” She looked him right in the eye.

“What?” he asked, that wasn’t an answer, he was even more confused now.

“I complained to Captain Holt about Sergeant Santiago.” She said plainly.

“You did what?!” Jake half shrieked, still well aware that anyone could possibly hear them.

“I complained to Captain Holt about Sergeant Santiago,” she repeated, confused as to why her boyfriend didn’t understand.

“I heard you the first time, I just, I just don’t understand,” Jake said, running his hand through his oily hair, reminding him about his fathers unwanted presences last night.

“It’s a long story,” Vanessa warned.

“Looks like I’ve got all day,” Jake said reaching his arms to the side signifying he was ready to listen.

He doesn’t know if he wants to know why so that he can defend Vanessa or Amy in this situation. It’s for Vanessa though, right? He’s dating Vanessa, she’s the one who gets his defense.

“What the hell?!” he shrieked again.

Apparently not.

“You reported Santiago to Captain Holt because you thought she was mistreating you because of our relationship?!” Jake asked Vanessa quietly, trying to process what she had just told him.

“Yeah, pretty much,” she said, preoccupied with fixing up her lipstick.

“Why on Earth would you even come to that conclusion Vanessa?!” Jake was confused, really confused.

“Well this morning when I tried to ask to be assigned on a case, she was snappy and short with me-”

“Vanessa, she was probably stressed out because her binder broke or something, you know, weird things like that that make Amy stressed for reasons that seem very odd to others,” he tried reasoning with her.

“Nope, she was just being rude.” Vanessa said, matter-of-factly

“Look V, you can’t lodge a complaint about your supervisor because she was snappy at you once.”

“Well I asked to be assigned to one of your cases and he said no, so yeah, she’s being unfair.” Vanessa was starting to get on his nerves.

Shaking his head in his hands he explained, “no no no! She’s doing her job. You know that we aren’t meant to be on cases together. Amy would never even think of breaking an order like that.”

“Whatever,” Jake looked at her confused. “You obviously don’t care about me in this workplace.”

Jakes mouth was open, he could catch a million flies.

“What?!” he called out as Vanessa walked out of the Evidence room.

She turned around before leaving, “She still likes you, ya know.” And with that, she rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

***

Jake stayed in the evidence room for a while longer, pacing down the aisles of evidence boxes collecting dust. He came across a box labeled 2013, the prime of the Santiago vs Peralta bet. He opened up the box and started looking at all of the reports.

Looking through the different cases he had solved during the bet made a million memories come back flooding his head all at once.

He can see her, Santiago, sitting at her desk opposite him, intently writing up the paperwork on an arrest she had just made.

_“In your face Peralta!” she gloated,_

_“woops, look at that! Just finished the paperwork for a double arrest I did,” Jake looks at the clock, “30 minutes ago,” he smiled at her with the biggest grin he could do._

_“wha- no… you’re kidding!” Amy said trying to figure out a comeback._

_“Nope, looks like I’m still ahead by 2.”_

Jake laughed to himself. The expressions that would appear on Amy’s face when he would add to his score would be forever priceless. He missed their distracting childish rivalry as Holt had called it.

He walked over to shelving on the other side of the evidence room right near the door. Leaning up against the shelving he closed his eyes and allowed his memories to engulf him.

_“So… was it successful?... The mission I mean. Was it as cool as you dreamt?!”_

_“I hope so, I mean it was pretty cool”_

He remembers back to the night in this exact spot in the evidence room. He had just arrived back from his undercover mission with the FBI and wanted, needed to see one person. When he walked out into the bullpen, he was immediately submerged into a hug from Charles who was sobbing and creating a very wet patch on the shoulder of Jakes flannel. _“They’re not dating anymore,”_ Charles had managed to get out quietly between sobs. At the time Jake had no idea what his best friend had meant. Then 20 minutes later when he was in the evidence room with the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in cheap low light it all made sense.

He could practically smell her vanilla and honey perfume he absolutely loved where he stood recalling the times when he had been happy, truly happy. It wasn’t until this moment when he realised that he wasn’t himself anymore, he had progressed into a cycle that many would deem unhealthy. He had completely submerged himself into work, never taking the time to eat healthily -not that he already was, but this was different- he wasn’t sleeping, never fully engaging in conversations or being the precinct jokester anymore.

He recalled things that had seemed odd at the time but ended up disregarding it.

Surprisingly it was Holt who had first said something to Jake, commenting on how, yes he was solving more cases than before (including he and Santiago’s bet) but Jake wasn’t looking after himself.

Charles wouldn’t back off about Amy, asking -well more like pestering- what had happened that night before going to Shaws. Jake had continuously told him “Bud, nothing happened, can you just let it go.” But Charles wasn’t buying it.

Rosa had told him 5 months after the debacle that he needed to get over Amy. That’s it. That’s all she had said. But Jake acted upon this advice more than any other he had been given. One month later and Vanessa became a part of this story, his story, of getting over Amy Santiago. Well at least trying.

Now he wasn’t using Vanessa to show that he was over Amy, well he may have been subconsciously, but he genuinely liked this girl. She was a cop, enjoyed Die Hard (allegedly) and laughed at his jokes, what else could he want?

It was only a matter of weeks before Vanessa started to show her true colours and motive behind dating Jake. She would excessively post about their relationship on social media, said ‘I love you’ 3 weeks into their relationship but most of all, made him cut off all ties with Santiago. 

The relationship soon turned toxic without him even realising, until now.

Jake left the evidence room and made his way up into the precinct when his phone buzzed. He had 4 missed calls and several texts from the one and only Gina Linetti. 

_Kid, wtf is this?_

_Jacob, call me back now_

_Boo, spill.tea.now!_

_Jake Jake Jake Jake_

_She wHAT?!_

_Did you do it?_

_DID you come to your senses???_

Jake looked down at his phone with pure confusion written all over his face. What on Earth was Gina talking about? That’s when he gets a call from Vanessa

“Hey V, what’s going on?” he asks into the phone.

“I’m breaking up with you,” she replies sharply.

“cool cool cool cool cool cool cool, no doubt no doubt no doubt no doubt” he said running his fingers through his hair.

Suddenly he hears a distant beeb,

“Vanessa? Vanessa?? Can you- i- wha..” he looks down at his phone to see his lock screen staring up at him, she hung up.

***

For the next week, Jake would sulk around the precinct, barely talking to anyone. He walked over to Gina’s desk to pick up paperwork when she said to him.

“Can you go be depressed over there? You’re bumming out my whole area.”

This made Jake look back on the week he had and realised that Vanessa wasn’t worth it, she was toxic and was only in it for the attention and labels.

The next week was spent with Jake headfirst in all his cases, finishing them in record time and never wanting to stop.

A week later Jakes mind was in a completely different space. Definitely not concentrating on the work in front of him.

He was staring aimlessly at the desk in front of him. Because of last week, he hadn’t gotten much sleep and his brain decided it was payback time. He continued staring at Santiago’s old desk when his mind took him back in time and made him imagine her sitting there right in front of him, exactly like the good old days. Her silky black hair was pulled back in a tight but delicate low bun and she was concentrating hard on the paperwork in front of her. She looked up and noticed Jake looking at her and smiled intently back, he felt like the happiest man on Earth. Well, he did, until he got pulled back to reality when the new detective noticed Jake looking at her.

“Can I help you?” she asked very confused.

“Sorry, just zoned out, ya know, it’s normalz all goodz” Jake was acting weird but he had a good reason for it. He wishes he could go back in time, back when Santiago was his best friend, he wished he had never pushed for more, although he didn’t. He was about to go undercover, it felt wrong if he didn’t say something.

He misses her, more than he realised.

***

Jake spent the rest of the week thinking about Santiago and how he stuffed up, he let her go, he pushed her away, he pretended to be over her, he tried to prove to himself that he was over her. But it didn’t work. Jake Peralta is deeply and utterly in love with Amy Santiago.

***

It was a slow Tuesday night and Jake was sitting over at Rosa’s desk going over a case. He was deep in conversation when something caught his eye. Well more like someone. Walking out of Holts office was the one and only Amy Santiago. Jake stopped mid conversation and made eye contact for a little over two seconds before Amy quickly looked away tucking her hair behind both ears at the same time. This move doesn’t go unnoticed by Jake as he lets out small gasp. _The double tuck,_ he thought to himself.

“Jake,” Rosa brought him out of his trance.

“huh?” he replies slowly taking his gaze off Amy.

***

Later that night Jake finds himself laying on his bed staring at the ceiling, he rolls over to his bedside table and opens up the bottom drawer to reveal the photo of him and Amy after successfully stopping to Vulture from taking his case. A small tear drizzles its way down his face.

_I should have never taken you for granted._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little sappy ending for my favourite pining couple 🥺 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated ♡


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No time, long see!!  
> I am so sorry about the long wait for this final chapter! If I'm going to be completely honest, I genuinely thought that I had posted this last chapter because I had the ending extremely worked out in my head, but then a comment on my other story reminded me that I hadn't even started the last chapter!! whoopsies! While I was writing this chapter I forgot all of my plans but I think I still like the end of the journey that I wrote.   
> This chapter is shorter than I would've liked but I'm still very excited to share it with you all!!  
> I hope you have all enjoyed this story and I hope this final chapter doesn't disappoint!!!

“Jake?” Amy had just walked into the bullpen on the 4th floor and saw Jake asleep at his desk.

“Huh? What’s going on?? Sorry sir I…” he said waking up from his sleep.

“It’s just me,” Amy chuckled.

“Oh… I, sorry Ames. I mean Amy.”

Amy simply smiled at him

Jake yawned and rubbed his eyes which brought his vision back.

“So, what’s up Santiag- wow, god- wow. You look amazing Amy.”

“Aha… thanks Jake,” she quickly tucks her hair behind both ears. Things were definitely still awkward between the two.

“You… wait Jake,” she paused for a moment. You’re not going looking like that?!”

“Like what, go where?” He looked down at his shirt with an orange soda stain right in the middle.

“Did you seriously forget?!”

“Forget what?”

“YOUR COURT CASE YOU IDIOTT!!”

“THAT’S TODAY??!!!”

“YESS, OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT ABOUT THIS COURT CASE! IT’S YOUR BIGGEST ONE SO FAR!!”

“I need to shower,” he said quietly gathering his thoughts.

“Yes, that would be a good start,” Amy said plainly,

“Oh god…”

“What?”

“I don’t have my spare suit in my locker anymore. I wore it out with…”

“It’s fine, I have one of your spare ones in my old locker.” Amy spoke as if what she had just said was something everyone says to someone they haven’t talked to in years.

“You what?”

“Sorry, I… um…” she traced back her words and looked up at Jake and saw the softness in his eyes.

“I grabbed one of your spare suits last time we worked a case, just in case you forgot about the court trial, I guess I never took it out.”

Jake looked at her and smiled, “Let’s go then!”

\----

“K, let’s gooo Santiagoooo”

Amy had her back towards to men’s locker room reading a sign on the notice board. Jake walked out of the men’s locker room smelling fresh, his hair still a little damp from the shower. Amy stumbled backwards caught off guard.

“Woahhh there Santiago, don’t be too jumpy, we’ve got a criminal to put behind bars.”

Amy had lost balance and fallen towards Jake who quickly grabbed her and put her back up on her feet.

“Ah, yeah haha, thanks Jake.” Amy said quickly dusting herself off.

“Let us ROOLLLLL” Jake yelled out to the entire precinct and started walking away. He turned back around when he noticed that Amy wasn’t walking.

“Amy?”

“Sorry, I…” Jake looked at her quizzingly. “Can I ride with you? My car is in the shop and Terry just messaged me saying that he already left for court.” She said quickly

“Yeah, of course!”

\----

“That was one heck of a case Peralta!” Amy said chirpily as they walked out of the courthouse.

“Only Brooklyn’s finest detective could’ve solved that.” He said walking with his head held high.

“Hey!!” Amy said offended and wacked his arm.

“What was that for?!” He looked shocked.

“If it wasn’t for my helpful hint, you wouldn’t’ve solved it!”

“True true…” he trailed off. “But to be fair my name is written on the file!”

“So is mine!!” Amy called out.

“Wait…WHERE?!”

“I’m the sergeant of the uniformed officers” She said matter of factly.

“Whatever Santiago.” Jake said in a teasing way as he walked away towards his car.

“You’re still taking me back to the precinct right?!” she called out.

“Nah, I’m just gonna leave you here.” Amy looked at him, is he being serious?!  
“I’m joking Santiagoooo! Geeze lighten up!!” He chuckled to himself.

\----

When Amy got back to her desk, she looked down at her phone to see a photo of her and Jake outside of the court house, Jake had his goofy grin plastered all over his face like usual and you could tell that Amy was laughing. She smiled. Maybe things between them weren’t ruined after all.

\----

When Jake walked out of the elevator, he went straight over to the filing cabinet and pulled out a five dollar note with a sticky note still attached. He shoved it in his pocket and ran down to the first floor.

\----

“Santiago!!” Amy heard a familiar voice whisper shout. She turned around to see Jake walking up behind her.

“Jake! What are you doing here?” She sounded more surprised than she wanted.

“Come with me!”

Stupidly Amy followed Jake out of the precinct and followed him to the car.

\----

“Jake… where are we going?!”

“Just trust me.”

“But Jake!!”

“Trust me” he repeated.

She sighed, “alright.”

\----

Jake lead Amy up many stairs to the top of a roof.

“Why are we back here?” she asked, “The case is closed.”

“Not all of the cases,” he replied.

Amy was confused, Jake was acting so strange. She looked up to meet his deep warm brown eyes. She felt a sudden urge to do something, but they had barely spoken in years, that’s surely not what was about to happen.

“So…” he smiled at her. It was all too much.

She launched herself towards him, lips meeting in the middle. Her heart melted; she’d been waiting too long for this.

As they pulled apart Jake had a goofy grin plastered across his face.

“what?!” she chuckled.

Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out the Five dollar note.

“My new luck charm!!” he yelled out.

“Oh Jake…” She smiled at him. “I should have never taken you for granted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, my first fanfic is now fully complete! Thank you to everyone who has read, left kudos, commented and come back for more! I appreciate you all so so much!!!
> 
> -J ♡ 
> 
> (Ps. The five dollar note is the same one that Amy gave Jake in chapter two!)


End file.
